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Do Elves Dream of Eclectic Sleep?

© Michael Martinez

J.R.R. Tolkien devoted a lot of time and thought to determining what it means to be an Elf. He described the Elves in Letter 144 as representing "Men with greatly enhanced aesthetic and creative faculties, greater beauty and longer life, and nobility -- the Elder Children, doomed to fade before the Followers (Men), and to live ultimately only by the thin line of their blood that was mingled with that of Men, among whom it was the only real claim to 'nobility'." But what does all that mean? In Letter 73, Tolkien mentioned as an aside that the Elves represent "beauty and grace of life and artefact". In Letter 153 Tolkien wrote: "Elves and Men are represented as biologically akin in this 'history', because Elves are certain aspects of Men and their talents and desires" and "they have certain freedoms and powers we should like to have, and the beauty and peril and sorrow of the possession of these things is exhibited in them...." Sorrow and regret are commonly associated with the Elvish nature. The Elves acknowledge these feelings as easily as we acknowledge hope and desire. When Frodo met with Gildor Inglorion in the Shire, Gildor said, "The Elves have their own labours and their own sorrows, and they are little concerned with the ways of hobbits, or of any other creatures upon earth." That is a very curious thing to say, for it it contrasts deeply with the picture that others paint of the Elves, such as Gandalf and Treebeard. Gandalf tells Frodo that some of Sauron's greatest foes remain in Rivendell, the Elven-wise, lords of the Eldar from beyond the Sea. When other Elves have fled from Middle-earth, and while some are still only lingering as Gildor's folk do, a few of the Eldar hold steadfast to the purpose of opposing Sauron. And Treebeard tells Merry and Pippin that it was the Elves who first woke up the trees, and taught them to speak. The Elves were once curious about everything, and they wanted to know as much as they could about the world in which they themselves had awakened. In an interview he made for a documentary of his father's life, Christopher Tolkien notes that the Elves are almost consumed with regret. By the time of the War of the Ring, the Elves no longer look forward. Rather, they look back. And in looking back, they bring about their own eclipse or twilight, or welcome it. For it is indeed their fate to fade, to vanish from the world and the light, leaving all that they had achieved to the merciless hands of Men.

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